Holiday Inn of Craig sold to New York company

Craig  The Holiday Inn of Craig was sold to new owners — a transaction that was finalized Tuesday.

New York-based Jacobs Real Estate Advisors bought the 152-room hotel for roughly $3.1 million under a newly formed company called Jacobs 300 Colorado LLC.

The hotel has been bank owned since 2011, according to Moffat County documents.

“For the last year, we’ve been buying stressed hotels across the country,” said Sholom Jacobs, owner of the company. “We’re very hands-on owners. We’re very family oriented.”

The hotel brand will change in the coming months, Jacobs said, noting that he can’t keep the Holiday Inn flag because Holiday Inn has changed its business model and no longer will trademark buildings that only are two stories tall.

Jacobs is looking at changing it to a Wyndham or a Red Lion, but nothing has been finalized.

One thing is for certain: The hotel will get a $1.5 million facelift within the next 12 months, Jacobs said.

“It will definitely be a very nice return,” he said, highlighting that the cash flow for the hotel has been great during the past couple of years. “We’re going to be putting a lot of money into it.”

Specifically, he wants to make the property more modern.

The hotel currently employs 70 full- and part-time staff, all of whom will keep their jobs, with the exception of the general manager Stephen Smith. The Holiday Inn was managed by GE Hotels management company until the new owners bought the hotel. Smith was transferred to San Marcos Golf Resort, in Phoenix, Ariz., which is a GE Management hotel.

“It’s a great staff here. We’re going to do great things,” said Zac Weiner, assistant director of hotels for Jacobs Real Estate Advisors.

Weiner and Tom French, director of hotels for the company, currently are looking for a new general manager. They should have that position filled in the next two months, Weiner said.

“Our management company is about community,” French said. “Giving back to the community is as important as being in it.”

The ultimate goal for the new owners is to bring stability to the property, which has seen its fair share of volatility in the past decade.

“What we realize is there’s been a fair amount of ownership change,” French said. “So the property has not had a lot of consistency recently. We can bring that consistency back. We’re really excited about being able to do that.”

It’s the fifth time the hotel has changed owners since 1990, according to county documents.